2026-05-05
The big four banks - CBA, NAB, Westpac and ANZ - made a profit of $16.9 billion from owner-occupier home loans in 2025, new data by the Australia Institute shows.
Over the life of an average 30 year owner-occupier mortgage, the big four banks make nearly $229,000 in profit. That’s just over $11,000 in the first year of a new loan, which equates to $926 each month or $214 per week.
While owner-occupier loans make up 22.7% of the assets of the big four banks, profit on these loans made up 39.3%. The banks are disproportionately capitalising off owner-occupier mortgages.
As anxious households await yet another potential interest rate hike, the NAB has announced half-yearly profits of $2.75 billion, while ANZ’s profits rose to $3.65 billion.
The Greens say the big banks are the real winners of Trump’s invasion-induced inflation spike, while owner-occupier borrowers pay the price. And it’s an especially big price for first home buyers.
Lines attributable to Greens spokesperson for Finance, Housing and Homelessness Senator Barbara Pocock:
“While households anxiously await another possible rate increase amid rising grocery and fuel prices, the banks are making a motza off the housing crisis and fuel inflation.
“Millions of people are already in mortgage stress, caught in a painful cost of living and housing crisis. Another rate increase will punish households already doing it tough and not the billionaires and big corporations who are profiting off inflation.
“Anyone with a mortgage with one of the big banks is helping accelerate massive bank profits, while millions of renters cop it through unfair rent rises.
“Hard working Australians are looking at the big banks’ obscene profits and asking: how is this fair?
“Every time the RBA puts interest rates up, mortgage holders and renters pay the price, while the big banks increase profits directly out of the pockets of owner-occupiers and first-home buyers.
“For decades the major banks have made enormous profits price-gouging on people’s mortgages, contributing to the pain of inflation.
“Australians have had enough. They’re fed up with seeing the banks and wealthy property investors profit from a housing crisis, while wages aren’t keeping up with house prices and inflation.”
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Charlotta Lomas – 0466 339 862